Weird Worlds Vol 1 8

"Iron-Wolf": Lord Ironwolf, one of the finest Imperial Officers of the Court from Earth-based interstellar Empire Galaktika, renounces his privileged position, in opposition to Empress Erika Klein-Hernandez's policies and cruelties.

Synopsis for "Iron-Wolf"

Lord Ironwolf, one of the finest Imperial Officers of the Court from Earth-based interstellar Empire Galaktika, renounces his privileged position, in opposition to Empress Erika Klein-Hernandez's policies and cruelties.

However, the Empress still asks Ironwolf to allow her new alien allies to make use of his Anti-Gravity trees. Fearing the aliens would then build their own fleet of ships with the wood, and attack the empire, Ironwolf flatly refuses and smacks the Empress across her face. This enrages her, and two of her dimwitted guards defend her by attacking Ironwolf, who fights them off. Suddenly amidst the scuffle, a woman named Missy appears and blasts at the barbarians with a fallen gun. The two heroes escape aboard an Anti-Gravity wood shuttle to meet up with his spaceship.

When he visits his homeworld, Illium, he finds that his brother, Tyrome, has sold their birthright of the Anti-Gravity tree's to the Empress. He slaps him around and then decides to blow up the trees himself. He has now destroyed the only value his family had.

While on his ship, he encounters the lost Sargasso Sea of Space, where lost ships drift among the lonely void. Taking a shuttle over to one of the drifting ships, he discovers an interior full of overgrown plants, much like a a garden. Suddenly, he sees a scarlet-haired woman being pursued by several alien creatures. He quickly slices one with his sword and then uses the fallen opponent's giant sword to stab another creature.

The woman is Shebaba O'Neal, a member of the resistance movement, known as the Rebel Government who have sworn to overthrow the Empress and establish democracy. She and Ironwolf join forces in her navy, and she becomes the first mate on his spaceship, The Limerick Rake.

Due to their act of treason, they become hunted outlaws and proceed to wage a campaign of intergalactic rebellion against the Empress and her cohorts.

Notes

Plot by Chaykin, script by O'Neil.

An earlier Howard Chaykin character named Cody Starbuck was the basis for Lord Ironwolf. Starbuck also had a star ship named The Limerick Rake.